Is Samrat Choudhary Going To Be The Next Bihar CM? Nitish Kumar Projects Him As His Successor
Nitish Kumar has indicated several times that Samrat would succeed him and hinted the BJP leader would oversee the work of the state in future.
Published : March 20, 2026 at 4:34 PM IST
Patna: Is Samrat Choudhary going to be the next chief minister of Bihar? The answer would be affirmative if you consider the repeated hints dropped by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar about the senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and deputy chief minister.
They are being taken up in the political circles with his endorsement. Some of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners and leaders have started seeing it as a foregone conclusion, though it is the BJP top brass at the Centre that makes appointments for such positions.
Nitish, during his ongoing statewide Samriddhi Yatra (Prosperity Tour), has indicated several times over the past 10 days that Samrat would succeed him. He has often hinted and stated in front of the audience at his public meetings that the BJP leader would oversee the work of the state in future.
Ending his public address at Khagaria, Nitish suddenly stopped while thanking the people present there. He caught hold of Samrat by his shoulder and arm, pulled him ahead, and asked him to salute the audience. The latter bowed with folded hands.
Several other BJP and Janata Dal (United) leaders were present on the dais, but singling out Samrat was like presenting him to the people as his successor. Nitish had made similar gestures during his speeches at Madhepura, Saharsa and Araria earlier this month.
Addressing a public gathering in Jamui as part of the fourth leg of his tour on Wednesday (March 18) Nitish placed his hands on Samrat’s shoulder and appealed to the people to support and bless him. “He (Samrat) is working so much. He will handle all the work in future,” Nitish said with a smile to the crowd.
Earlier this week, Nitish, who has been the chief minister from 2005 till present with a brief interregnum in 2014-15, was elected to the Rajya Sabha. He is expected to take oath after the seat becomes vacant on April 9, and is expected to resign as the chief minister around the date. However, he will remain the national president of Janata Dal (United) or JD(U). His son has recently been inducted into the party.
The BJP emerged as the largest party with 89 seats in the 243-member legislative Assembly in the elections held in November 2025. The next chief minister is expected to be from it.
Support for Samrat
Commenting on Nitish’s signals with regard to Samrat as the heir to his post, Union minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) leader Jitan Ram Manjhi asserted, “Nitish Kumar ji believes in transparency and does what he thinks. If he is indicating about him (Samrat), then it could be believed that he would not backtrack.”
Giving his own example, Manjhi, talking to media persons on Thursday evening at an ‘iftar’ (meal eaten after sunset during Ramadan) hosted in Patna, said that Nitish made him the chief minister by his own choice. He added that whoever becomes the next chief minister will be due to the blessings of Nitish.
BJP leader and state agriculture minister Ram Kripal Yadav also came out in support of Samrat and said that he had already been overseeing the work of the state for a long time as an associate of Nitish.
“The entire country knows Nitish is the chief minister and Samrat is the deputy chief minister. What is the big deal if Nitish places his hands on his (Samrat’s) shoulders and says that he will oversee the work in the coming days,” Ram Kripal said.
Samrat’s political significance
Samrat, aka Rakesh Kumar, 57, is the son of veteran politician Shakuni Choudhary and has spent over 25 years in politics. He is currently number two in Nitish’s cabinet with the crucial home department portfolio with him, and is considered a frontrunner in the race to the chief minister’s post.
Presently an MLA from Tarapur Assembly constituency in Munger district, Samrat hails from the Kushwaha (Koeri) caste, which is a part of the Other Backwards Classes (OBC) and happens to be around 4.21 per cent of Bihar’s 13 crore population. Nitish hails from the Kurmi caste, which amounts to 2.88 per cent of the population.
Both the Kurmi and Kushwaha castes trace their origin to Lord Ram’s sons Luv and Kush and are closely connected to each other. Together they form the largest caste group after the Yadavs, who amount to over 14.27 per cent of the state’s population. Samrat’s selection to the top post could ensure a smooth change of guard after Nitish.
If the BJP anoints Samrat as the chief minister, it can easily attract the Kurmi-Kushwaha equation in its favour. The two castes have ample political muscle and are a rallying point for anti-Lalu Prasad or anti-Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and non-Yadav votes among the OBC.
Samrat has served as the Bihar BJP president, is experienced in governance, and has an aggressive style, which fits in the saffron party’s scheme of things. However, several BJP old-timers consider him an ‘outsider’ as he split the RJD and joined the saffron party in 2014 along with 13 MLAs.
The potential spanners
Senior JD(U) leader and Bihar minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary rejected that Nitish has projected Samrat as the next chief minister or his successor. Another senior JD(U) leader and minister, Ashok Choudhary, has been rooting for Nitish’s son Nishant as the chief minister. He also said that all the NDA partners in the state will meet and choose the next chief minister.
Moreover, going by the recent trends in Haryana, Rajasthan, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh, the BJP has opted for relatively unknown faces over well-known political leaders as the chief minister. The party could uphold the tradition in Bihar as well.
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